RETHINKING PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES…1
To resolve the perpetual financial crisis in the university system, we must examine alternative sources of funding
While it is within the fundamental right of parents to educate their children wherever they choose, it is a bit unsettling that those entrusted with managing social assets now make a public show of their children’s offshore graduation ceremonies. It is all the more scandalous that this has even become a competition among governors, ministers and other public officials at a period when all our public universities in Nigeria have been shut for several months. Time has therefore come to find a solution not only to the current Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) impasse but also to the challenge of public universities in Nigeria. At the root of this crisis is the lack of an articulated policy on funding public education.
As we have repeatedly stated on this page, we understand what ASUU is fighting for, even when we disagree with their method. The weak financial conditions of most of our universities are exacerbated by the current crippling economic crisis afflicting the nation. Yet, besides personnel costs, funds are required to rehabilitate dilapidated facilities, purchase consumables and aid research. But dealing with the challenge of thin liquidity requires more than seasonal strikes by both the academic and non-academic staff while the federal government and authorities in the 36 states must also understand the primacy of constant dialogue.
Given the level of our development, education deserves priority attention and providing access to indigent students is a moral obligation, especially for members of the ruling elite many of whom may not have had tertiary education were the universities not free. But we should also not shy from the fact that times have changed. The reality of the Nigerian condition today is that there’s not enough money to fund tertiary education at a commensurate level. Reducing corruption and waste will help but not as much as usually advertised by ASUU. So, we need a pragmatic approach to address the problem of funding.
In most countries where education is taken seriously, universities explore several ways of raising funds for their operations, without any attempt to reinvent the wheel. The common avenues include donations, endowments, professional chairs, gifts, grants, and consultancy services. Incidentally, the military government of General Yakubu Gowon dealt with the problem at the level of policy. The federal military government had the students’ loans scheme, work study programmes, scholarship schemes for indigent students, grants, etc. There were also bursaries at the level of states. Sadly, all these schemes have either been abandoned or compromised in their execution.
To resolve the perpetual financial crisis in the university system so that our graduates can compete globally in the knowledge world, we must examine alternative sources of funding. While financial assistance for poor but bright students could come in form of scholarships and bursaries, the idea of tuition-free tertiary education for all is no longer realistic. For the sector to attract quality academic and non-academic staff, provide necessary teaching aids, and ensure conducive learning environment for students, some people must bear the cost.
The ASUU strike must come to an end now. Our children cannot remain at home indefinitely. And lecturers who have been off work for so long cannot expect to continue drawing salaries from a dwindling public treasury. On its part, the federal government can also not insist on a strictly technical adherence to its IPPIS payment platform. Nor should it ignore the social and long-term economic cost of having public universities closed endlessly. There is a larger national development interest at stake which must override the combined ego of both sides. The federal government should come clean to ASUU on the real state of our economy. There is only so much fund that government can deploy to settling outstanding obligations. But ASUU should be ready to settle for a negotiated payment plan to offset its agreed demands over a sensible timeframe.
Most importantly, ASUU must collaborate with government and the enlightened voice of the public to find reasonable and feasible solutions to the funding of public tertiary education. Such a solution must include reasonable tertiary fees and student support facilities on the basis of merit and need. In doing so, ASUU must undertake to be in the forefront of eliminating corrupt practices and undue leakages in the administration and management of university funds.
NOTE: To be continued
